


I Got the Itch

by VeraBAdler



Series: October 2019 challenges [27]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, head lice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 16:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeraBAdler/pseuds/VeraBAdler
Summary: Cas helps Dean with a delicate problem, and things progress from there.Prompt 1: CoatPrompt 2: Creatures





	I Got the Itch

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if the thought of head lice grosses you out. Dean's are all cleared up by the time this story starts, promise!

"Hold still, please, Dean."

"Man, I'm tryin'. This stool ain't exactly comfy. How much longer is this gonna take?"

Dean is stripped to the waist, with a ratty towel draped across his back and over his shoulders. He's sitting on a low three-legged stool in the Bunker's main bathroom. Castiel, ex-Angel of the Lord, is methodically going over his head with a literal fine-toothed comb. 

Because Dean Winchester caught the cooties.

"Still can't fuckin' believe I got head lice from a dirty motel pillow," he grumbles as Cas continues his work. "How 'm I supposed to deal with the fact that there's tiny _creatures_ living on me??"

"There are always tiny creatures living on you," Cas replies. "Colonies of beneficial bacteria in your gut. Microbes on the surface of your skin which break down compounds in your sweat to produce the complex natural scent of your body. Mites that live in your eyebrows and eyelashes, which--"

"Buddy, unless you want me to go take a two-hour shower with napalm, do _not_ finish that thought." Dean shudders, and closes his eyes. "Ugh, now I can feel things crawling all over me."

"That is purely a psychosomatic reaction, I assure you. None of the organisms that live on and in you are large enough for you to be aware of their movements.” He glares down at Dean. “You, on the other hand, are very large, and you are moving much too much. I'm almost finished combing through your hair. Just be still for a few more minutes."

"Fine." He sighs and wills himself to relax. He focuses on the rhythm of Cas's hands moving around his head, each of Dean's hairs passing on its own through the small metal comb. Gradually, he lets the sensation lull him into a drowsy half-haze.

"There." Cas's voice cuts through his distraction, and Dean's brain stumbles back to alertness.

"We done for the day?" he gruffs out, squirming again on the unyielding surface of the stool.

"Yes, we're all done with the comb. I found nothing this time, not even any dead eggs. You'll need just one more treatment with the shampoo, first thing tomorrow morning, and as long as you're very careful to coat every bit of your hair with the medicine, you can consider yourself cured. We never have to do this again." Cas offers him a triumphant smile, but there's a dimness around his eyes, a disappointment that doesn't match his words.

And Dean... He feels it too. Despite the inconvenience and the discomfort of the treatments, not to mention the gross-out factor of getting lice in the first place, it's been... Nice. _Really_ nice. All this past week, he and Cas have spent half an hour a day right here, doing this. Dean has sat on this stool and Cas has stood over him, so close that Dean could feel the warmth of his body, smell the soap on his skin. And then Dean has been allowed, no, _required_ to hold very still and let Cas touch him for thirty blissful minutes. He realizes, belatedly, that an itchy head had been a trifling price to pay for that privilege, that closeness, something he would most likely never experience with Cas again.

“Uhh...” Floored by this realization, and wanting to keep them close like this for a bit longer, he flails about for something to say next. “Are you _sure_ I'm all clear? Maybe we should keep checking for a few more days? Better safe than sorry?” He considers lying, saying that his head still itches to try to trick Cas into continuing their sessions. But the thought of using deception to wheedle more one-on-one time with his friend turns his stomach. If Cas isn't interested in him that way, Dean isn't going to be able to bamboozle him into changing his mind.

But what if Cas _is_ interested? Dean's sure he hadn't imagined the sadness in those pretty blue eyes just now. He reaches out to grab his friend's wrist as he's turning away to tidy up the bathroom counter. “Hey, um...” Dean begins. “Thanks for helping me out with all this.”

“Of course, Dean.”

“I mean it, Cas. I hate that I got fuckin' _infested_ at some cheap flophouse, but this? Us, in here, every day? This has been good. I've liked it. So, thank you.”

Nervous, he pauses to lick his lips, and he notices the way Cas's eyes flick down to his mouth and stay focused there a couple of beats too long. When the erstwhile angel returns his gaze to Dean's, there's a light flush on his cheeks. It's a clear enough signal, and Dean decides to go for it. He leans forward and brushes their lips together in a light caress. It's only an almost-kiss, one that he could still _maybe_ explain away as friendly affection if he had to. Then he leans back and lets Cas decide what happens next.

Cas huffs a soft laugh, half incredulous and half giddy. Then he grabs both ends of the towel that's still draped around Dean's shoulders and hauls him in close. This time the kiss is indisputable, and it moves way past friendly a few seconds in. Dean's busy getting acquainted with the taste of his best friend's tongue when a twinge from his lower back reminds him he's still sitting on that crappy stool. There are better places they could be doing this. Reluctantly, he breaks the kiss.

“So, I need to change the sheets on my bed one more time now that the treatment's over. Do you wanna come and... Help me with that?”

“I would love to.”

“Awesome.” Dean pecks him on the lips one more time, then drags him down the hall to his room.

**Author's Note:**

> A rebloggable link for this fic on tumblr is [here](https://blessyourhondahurley.tumblr.com/post/188633526946/october-27-i-got-the-itch).


End file.
